Russian automated docking systems used to fail once in a while. The famous Mir-Progress collusion was an attempt on doing a manual docking (to save money by not carrying the automated system which would burn away once the Progress would deorbit) with an unmanned spacecraft (Progress) with the guidance but no control from the manned craft (Mir) which went horribly wrong.

Not so simple. The Soviets had a system in place called Kurs. Kurs was engineered and produced in the Ukraine. After the Soviet Union broke up, Ukraine was the sole supplier of the Kurs system and also owned the IP of said system. They wanted too much $$$ to supply and/or license the system. Russia then develops the Toru system as a backup and kludge. They were salvaging Kurs computers from automated progress modules and sending them home on the Space Shuttle. I believe that the Kurs system was actually very reliable and had no issues. Toru, on the other hand, was a contributing factor in the collision.

So basically, due to an IP dispute, Russia developed a much inferior system and this resulted in an accident.

Not really. Docking has been done automatically, manually by an onboard pilot, and remotely. Russian spacecraft since 1985 have used the Kurs system (which they now have to buy from Ukraine, at a somewhat inflated price). That's a full-auto, straight-on approach system, and has a good track record. The US used onboard pilot control for final shuttle docking. The Dragon spacecraft was remotely controlled into a close position to the ISS, then grabbed with the robot arm.

Competition is good, and it looks like the Chinese are proving very competitive in the space race. I'm sure there will be those who claim they "stole" the technology, but regardless of how they acquired the ideas, it's still the Chinese people and industry who are making it work. And as we all know from the failed launches of other nations, even having access to an internet full of historical designs and ideas doesn't make space technology work.

Absolutely correct. The Chinese deserve congratulations and well-wishes. What they've done is momentous. ANYthing that gets ANYone into space is good -- in the long run, we're all human and we need to get off this rock!

What do you mean "stole" the technology? As part of the red scare from 1950, the US government blacklisted the guy that created the first step rocket at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and later became their director, and when the guy wanted to leave got instead five years of house arrest and was exchanged for American prisoners in the Korean war.

This brilliant episode of American realpolitiks effectively exported the whole US rocket program (including nuclear carrier technology) to China in a felling swoop. At least the guy was decent enough to start the development of the chinese program from soviet designs instead of just ripping the US ones that he ** design himself.

Having grown up on the Florida space coast watching Saturn V's and Space Shuttles since I was 6 - I can see the pride and excitement in the faces of the astronauts and spectators and I remember what that felt like. It's hard for me to not be a little envious. Have we "advanced" now that Obama Administration killed our manned space program (after promising not to BTW) ? I don't know.... Despite the great success of SpaceX I am skeptical that commercialized space will ever make enough money to survive without government subsidies, only time will tell. But congrats to China for a job well done, enjoy it while you can !

fair enough - but this administration dug the hole, tossed the coffin in, and threw dirt on top of it. I guess I have a different perspective on it growing up in the shadow of rockets and going to school with the kids of genuine rocket scientists. It's honestly what made me choose engineering as a career and I was lucky enough to work on the expendable side of things back in the late 80's. I personally believe that space exploration is one of the very few areas that government SHOULD be doing - only the

Yeah. Cause no commercial airline that has lost passengers and large, expensive jumbo jets in a plane crash is still operating today, right? Man, you sure do spout some crap. You even threw some 'think of the children' in there too. Seriously.

You cite an industry that has oversight by the FAA for that reason, yes an airliner is a pretty powerful thing too, in the wrong hands it can take down a skyscraper. A rocket is a COMPLETELY different thing - when they go wrong there isn't some guy at the controls who can try and avert a school or a shopping mall, yes they have (most have) command destruct capability, but things can go wrong there too. A large booster loaded with solid rocket fuel, cryogenic fuels, or hypergolic fuels is not something you

In all honesty, I personally think that the Bush Madministration's joke of a "space initiative" should have had a stake driven through its heart before it ever got through Congress. As if slightly inflating the Apollo Command Module and claiming it was a revolutionary new design were not enough they had the audacity to name it 'Orion', perhaps in an attempt to make people forget the first proposed practical interplanetary spacecraft. Oh well, they got what they wanted, a pile of money shoveled into the co

Spacex was entirely privately funded. The Falcon 9 was entirely privately developed. No government subsidies involved. And it is profitable without 'government subsidies', selling commercial satellite launches. Time has told, and it says the shuttle did too little for what it cost, and the ares rocket was shaping up to be more of the same, so the obama administration axed it and gave a contract to spacex to do the same for a fraction of the cost, and spacex is delivering. Deal with it.

Gads, Dolphin. You used to be over on Space.com screaming about O as well, making loads of wild assertions then.

So, again, manned space program is certainly not dead in NASA. Never has been. We have several ppl up in space.
Secondly, O promised to NOT kill manned space. It is doing just fine. W and you neo-cons killed the shuttle. And your same group killed constellation. The EARLIEST that Ares I would have flown was 2017 and it was already looking to slip again. br>
Third, it is you neo-cons that are

How short a memory so many have. If it were not for the "sharing" of guidance system technology in the not so distant past (Clinton era), the Chinese may have not been able to get off the ground successfully, let alone operate in space. Now we are so in debt to China, and have allowed them to manufacture so many of our high-tech products, no wonder they have "caught-up" in such a short time (relatively easy when you can steal what you cannot invent on your own). Yes, you congratulate your competitors when

The "Americans" didn't invent the pyramids, nor did they invent vaccines, nor created philosophy and neither invented the sliced bread. Everything you have came from foreign roots. Stop acting like you bring light to the world. And start thanking all those who made the world work before 1492.

China is known for millennia for just caring about their things. When did you hear the Chinese went for world conquest? Have you ever heard of some Chinese wanting to take over Europe like the Arab

Because it's obvious the product was 'Designed by Apple.' It's a freakin' Apple product. That, and they're obvioulsy obfuscating the fact it's "Made in China." Even if a Dell laptop is assembled by an ODM it's still "Designed by Dell."

...the current situation as similar to a hostile takeover. A big company with lots of cash (China in this analogy) buys out a company deep in debt (USA), strips it of its most valuable assets, fires most of the employees, closes the company, then moves on to the next target.

Funny you should say that. It appears that China is also advancing embracing free-enterprise at a rapid pace.

The crew of Soyuz 11 were killed by a depressurization accident that occurred during undocking (I believe the separation of one part of the Soyuz capsule from another) and the collision of a Progress craft with Mir caused a loss of pressure. Wearing spacesuits when you are doing docking stuff is a very good idea.

Its only a little space station, and its only a docking. Yes, the US did all this years ago. But what have you done since?

Whatever else you may think of the Chinese government, it's manned space program is excellent. Despite a low launch rate, it is inaccurate to describe it as slow. Each individual mission is a significant step forwards, whereas in the comparable stage in the US/Soviet space race, large numbers of similar missions were being flown.

BTW, North America also includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and arguably Panama. Also one other country whose name escapes me for the moment, but which all the others find extremely irritating...

I'm fairly sure you never heard of Central America before, so all is forgiven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America

Did you even read what you linked? Central America is not a continent, it's a subcontinent. While all those countries may be part of the Central America subcontinent, they're also part of North America.

One thing that really annoys me here and in other social situations is when people don't understand context or feign misunderstanding of context in a weak effort to appear intelligent, or make someone look dumb to appear intelligent themselves, which is even worse. Get off your intellectual high horse and quit pretending you don't know what country the GP was talking about.

Considering how much their Shenzhou capsules and Long March 2E rockets resemble Russian Soyuz designs (Oh they aren't identical, there are a few upgrades), I don't think China have learned all that much in the interim.

How many people do you know who would be willing to go into space in a craft with a "Made in China" sticker on the side?

More than would be willing to go into space in a craft with a "Made in America" sticker on the side. I mean, have you seen American cars? Imagine what it would be like if they ever tried to make a spacecraft!

A couple of years ago I had to sort out the dodgy electrics on an imported Chevy Blazer - anyone who reckons Lucas electrickery is bad has never worked on a Yank Tank - and in among the normal quality issue gremlins there were some spectacular "features".

I think the best was that the starter was locked out unless you were sitting in the driver's seat, with the seatbelt fastened, the door closed, the handbrake on and your foot on the clutch. That was one of the first things that got a date

Chinese are adept at "copy first, improve later", which is an entirely reasonable attitude - much more so than building something that's already done from scratch. What many people are missing is the "improve" part - but it's there and working just fine. As a simple example, 40 years ago Chinese were using AK with minimal changes as their main infantry rifle. 20 years ago it was AK with considerable changes. Today it's a rifle in a different caliber, with completely different look and ergonomics - it's stil

No, it wasn't, though it's a very popular misconception, fueled largely by vaguely similar external look, especially the magazine shape (Czech Vz 58 is also mistaken for an AK for similar reasons). Constructively, the closest living relative of StG 44 is FN FAL. AK also uses long-stroke piston action, but otherwise it is dissimilar in how it locks the barrel, construction of the trigger, and general layout.

You could probably say that AK - or rather the new intermediate 7.62x39 cartridge around which it was

Why is it morally bankrupt to learn from what others have done? Wouldn't that mean that every single scientist who has ever walked on this earth has been morally bankrupt? Why should every nation that wants to go to space have to reinvent the wheel? And as the comment below points out, it seems they've learned a hell of a lot more from the Russians than the US, they after all actually have an active manned space program.

Funny how what goes around, comes around. I think the entire United States is going to be punished for harboring our own thieves and moral bankrupts, soon enough. How is our economy doing these days? I read that the average American household is worth 30% less today than it was about a decade ago. That was among some political propaganda - but let me find the link anyway:

Hmm - not the link I was looking for, but it offers very much the same data, just with another political flavored spin on it:

I have to agree with AC's sentiments. "Even the Russians"? WTF? Let me just ask - how many nations, corPorations, and other entities have gone into sPace? How many have docked with anything? How many have made a landing, from which PeoPle walked away, alive and well?

It seems that the list makes uP a rather small, exclusive club.

So, just congratulate the Chinese. I like to bash them when it's deserved. Start a thread on consumer goods, and I'll start the bashing for you. They sell a lot of substandard shit that isn't worth the effort of carrying home if it were given to you. In this case, they've done good. Better than the US can do. We don't even have a frigging sPacecraft anymore. We are reduced to bumming rides from PeoPle who can afford transPortation.

Just out of curiosity, what would happen to the ISS if Russia decided that they would transport only Russian back and forth from the ISS? Could NASA somehow make it unusable to the Russian? I would think that we would want the Chinese to be capable of taking astronauts to the ISS only so we are not totally dependent on the Russians. It will probably another 3 years at least before any astronauts are taken up from the US. A Russian general has called for a preemptive strike on a ABM system in Poland. I

ISS is mainly MIR-2 and its assorted bits and bobs. If Russians decide to go and play their own ball and take Mir-2 bits, the rest would deorbit and burn in no time and the Russians would still have a viable space station.

finally something positive amidst the artificially induced crisis rampage, the criminalization of privacy, tor, soon any kind of vpn perhaps, european censorship pointing fingers at the chinese and korea... i love this shit, it's an in your face we did it while you just stood there bickering. I hope to see more. Hell, i vote the chinese for world domination, at least they're honest about the way they want to 'protect the people'